Counties of Lithuania

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Updates: 

Update 16 to the U.S. standard GEC is dated 2014-06-30. It removes the codes for the counties of Lithuania, and assigns codes to the municipalities.

I added the results of the 2011 and 1989 censuses. Lithuanians have been emigrating, resulting in a noteworthy decline in population.

Change Notice 7 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated 2002-01-10. In 1990, Lithuania was reorganized into ten apskritis (counties). In 1994, the country was reorganized again into 56 towns and regions. These 56 divisions ostensibly supersede the counties, but the Statistics Department still reports data at both levels. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, FIPS initially listed Lithuania with only one division. Later, it reported 55 of the 56 towns and regions. As a result of Change Notice 7, FIPS listed the ten counties of 1990. ISO 3166-2 has reported only those ten counties from the very start (1996).

The book gives two-letter abbreviations for the towns and regions. I have assigned HASC codes to the counties so that they won't conflict with the town and region codes.

Erratum: In "Administrative Divisions of Countries", page 222, two letters were transposed in one of the region names. Ladzijai should be Lazdijai.

Country overview: 

Short nameLITHUANIA
ISO codeLT
FIPS codeLH
LanguageLithuanian (lt)
Time zone+2 ~
CapitalVilnius

 

The territory constituting modern Lithuania was almost entirely contained in the Russian Empire in 1900. On 1918-02-16, Lithuania declared its independence. It was forced to cede the Memelland along the coast to Germany on 1939-03-22. It was occupied by the army of the Soviet Union in 1940, and became a constituent republic of the U.S.S.R., the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, on 1940-08-03. This annexation was never recognized by the United States. The Soviet Union acknowledged Lithuania's independence on 1991-09-06.

Other names of country: 

  1. Danish: Litauen
  2. Dutch: Litouwen, Republiek Litouwen (formal)
  3. English: Republic of Lithuania (formal)
  4. Finnish: Liettua
  5. French: Lituanie f
  6. German: Litauen n
  7. Icelandic: Litháen
  8. Italian: Lituania f
  9. Lithuanian: Lietuva, Lietuvos Respublika (formal)
  10. Norwegian: Litauen, Republikken Litauen (formal)
  11. Portuguese: Lituânia f, República f da Lituânia f (formal)
  12. Russian: Литва, Литовская Республика (formal)
  13. Spanish: Lituania
  14. Swedish: Litauen
  15. Turkish: Litvanya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

Lithuanian Lietuva: land abundant with water

Primary subdivisions: 

Lithuania is divided into ten apskritys (sing. apskritis: counties).

Short NameFull NameHASCISOGECNUTSPop-2011Pop-2001Pop-1989Area(km.²)Area(mi.²)
AlytusAlytaus ApskritisLT.ASALLH56LT001157,766187,769199,9105,4252,095
KaunasKauno ApskritisLT.KSKULH57LT002608,332701,529761,6968,0893,123
KlaipėdaKlaipėdos ApskritisLT.KPKLLH58LT003339,062385,768410,7625,2092,011
MarijampolėMarijampolės ApskritisLT.MAMRLH59LT004161,649188,634193,8264,4631,723
PanevėžysPanevėžio ApskritisLT.PAPNLH60LT005250,390299,990317,1767,8813,043
ŠiauliaiŠiaulių ApskritisLT.SHSALH61LT006301,686370,096393,8588,5403,297
TauragėTauragės ApskritisLT.TGTALH62LT007110,059134,275124,4024,4111,703
TelšiaiTelšių ApskritisLT.TLTELH63LT008152,078179,885174,1644,3501,680
UtenaUtenos ApskritisLT.UNUTLH64LT009152,004185,962202,6757,2012,780
VilniusVilniaus ApskritisLT.VIVLLH65LT00A810,403850,064911,3109,7313,757
10 counties3,043,4293,483,9723,689,77965,30025,212
  • HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
  • ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2.
  • GEC: Codes from GEC (obsolete).
  • NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics.
  • Pop-2011: 2011-03-01 census.
  • Pop-2001: 2001-04-06 census.
  • Pop-1989: 1989-01-12 census.
  • Area: Source [2].
  • Capitals: Have same names as counties (short name).

Postal codes: 

Lithuania used four-digit postal codes. A new system of five-digit postal codes was initiated on 2004-01-01, but either type of code can be used during the transition period. Postal codes for Lithuanian addresses can be identified by prefixing them with "LT-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Municipalities of Lithuania page.

Lithuania is further subdivided into sixty entities of three types: miestas (city), rajonas (district), and savivaldybe (municipality). These are subdivided into seniunijos (subdistricts).

Territorial extent: 

Neringa occupies the Lithuanian part of Kurshskaya Kosa, a long peninsula which is connected to the mainland in the Kaliningrad oblast of Russia.

The UN LOCODE page  for Lithuania lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

Klaipėda: Lithuanian klai: open, pėda: plain

Change history: 

  1. 1900: Present-day Lithuania consisted of the Russian guberniy of Kovno (capital Kaunas), northwestern Vilna (Vilnius), northern Suwalki (Suwalki), and a small part of southern Courland (Mitava), plus the Memelgebiet in Prussia.
  2. 1920-10-07: Poland occupied the southeastern part of Vilna, including the city of Vilnius.
  3. 1923-01: Memel territory, which had been administered by France since the Treaty of Versailles (1919-06-28), occupied by Lithuania, and given the Lithuanian name Klaipėda.
  4. 1924-05-08: Memel territory became an autonomous part of Lithuania under the Memel Statute. It consisted of the districts of Memel, Pagegiai, and Šilutė. The divisions of Lithuania at this time were as follows:
DistrictPopulationArea(km.²)Capital
Alytus139,5622,771Alytus
Biržai-Pasvalys110,4262,722Biržai
Kaunas233,0572,608Kaunas
Kėdainiai101,6562,406Kėdainiai
Kretinga114,8922,634Kretinga
Marijampolė118,9642,279Marijampolė
Mažeikiai83,5901,961Mažeikiai
Memel73,079852Memel
Pagegiai42,138938Pagegiai
Panevėžys178,0584,387Panevėžys
Raseiniai129,2753,077Raseiniai
Rokiškis95,4592,165Rokiškis
Šakiai76,4841,730Šakiai
Seinai48,0291,248Lazdijai
Šiauliai238,8926,048Šiauliai
Šilutė38,576650Šilutė
Tauragė136,2793,279Tauragė
Telšiai96,6312,626Telšiai
Trakai99,3882,145Kaišiadorys
Ukmergė148,5403,069Ukmergė
Utena127,9553,017Utena
Vilkaviškis93,5781,321Vilkaviškis
Zarasai50,8551,311Zarasai
23 districts2,575,36355,244
  • Population: 1938 estimate
  1. 1939-03-22: Memel territory annexed by Germany.
  2. 1939-10-10: Over half of the Polish territory in Vilna guberniya restored to Lithuania. Capital of Lithuania moved from Kaunas to Vilnius.
  3. 1990: Lithuania reorganized into 10 apskritis (districts, as shown in table above): Alytus, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Marijampolė, Panevėžys, Šiauliai, Tauragė, Telšiai, Utena, and Vilnius.
  4. 1994: Lithuania reorganized into 44 miestai (towns) and 12 rajonai (regions). They were intended to supersede the counties, but the counties are still in operation. The number of secondary subdivisions has since increased to 60, as shown on the Municipalities of Lithuania page.
  5. 2004-05-01: Lithuania joined the European Union.

Other names of subdivisions: 

In transcribing place names, č is often replaced by ch or tsch; š by sh or sch; ž by zh; and ė by ie or ye. Lithuanian is an inflected language, and names of divisions may have different endings depending on context. Most of the variants listed here are rather outdated.

  1. Alytus: Olita (German); Alitus (Spanish)
  2. Biržai: Birschi (German)
  3. Jonava: Janowo (German); Ianova (variant)
  4. Joniškis: Janischki (German)
  5. Jurbarkas: Jurburg (German); Yurburg (variant)
  6. Kaunas: Kowno (German); Kovno (variant)
  7. Kėdainiai: Keidany (German)
  8. Klaipėda: Memel (German, obsolete)
  9. Kretinga: Krottingen (German)
  10. Marijampolė: Kapsukas (obsolete); Mariampol (German)
  11. Mažeikiai: Moscheiki (German)
  12. Neringa: Nida (variant); Nidden (German)
  13. Palanga: Polangen (German)
  14. Panevėžys: Ponewiesch, Ponewjesh (German); Poneviezli (variant)
  15. Prienai: Preny (German)
  16. Radviliškis: Radsiwilischki (German)
  17. Raseiniai: Rossieny (German)
  18. Šiauliai: Schaulen (German); Shavli (variant)
  19. Šilalė: Schileli (German)
  20. Šilutė: Heydekrug (German)
  21. Skuodas: Shkudy (variant)
  22. Švenčionys: Schwentschionys, Swenzjany (German); Sventziany (variant)
  23. Tauragė: Tauroggen (German)
  24. Telšiai: Telsche, Telschi (German); Telshe (variant)
  25. Trakai: Troki (German)
  26. Ukmergė: Wilkomir (German); Vilkomir (variant)
  27. Vilkaviškis: Wilkowischki (German)
  28. Vilnius: Wilna (German); Vilna (Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Vilnious (French)

Sources: 

  1. [1] Interactive atlas . Statistics Lithuania (retrieved 2014-01-28).
  2. [2] 2001 census data from Statistics Lithuania website (http://www.std.lt/web/main.php, dead link, retrieved 2004-01-14).
  3. [3] Municipalities. Information Society Development Committee under the Government of the RL (http://www.lietuva.lt/index.php?Lang=5&ItemId=28049, dead link, retrieved 2005-07-20). Had a directory of counties, municipalities, and subdistricts.
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